Assessment of CO₂‐enhanced oil recovery and associated geologic storage potential in the Michigan Northern Pinnacle Reef Trend

Abstract

This paper provides an improved estimate of CO2‐EOR (where CO2 is carbon dioxide and EOR is enhanced oil recovery) and CO2 storage potential for depleted oil fields in Michigan's northern pinnacle reef trend (NPRT). Our methodology is based on capturing data on reservoir performance from reefs currently undergoing CO2‐EOR operations in the NPRT (referred to as ‘monitored reefs’), and then applying them to other reefs within the NPRT (referred to as ‘catalog reefs’). For each monitored reef, we calculate fractional primary recovery, fractional incremental EOR recovery, net utilization ratio, and storage efficiency factor. The corresponding incremental oil recovery from EOR, storage capacity until end of EOR, and total CO2 injection needs are then estimated for each catalog reef and combined (over all monitored reefs) using a weighted averaging procedure. These weights are related to a statistical similarity measure that is calculated between each monitored reef and each catalog reef based on a number of variables related to production data, formation type, or descriptive geologic attributes. For the entire NPRT catalog of 383 reefs as used in this study, our results indicate 118 million (MM) stock tank barrels (STB) (1.88 × 107 Sm3) of incremental oil from EOR operations, corresponding to 49 MM metric tons (MT) of CO2 storage and 266 MM MT of total CO2 injection. However, approximately one‐third of the reefs provide two‐thirds of the potential for CO2‐EOR and geologic storage, assuming an economic threshold of 0.5 MM STB (80 000 Sm3) of incremental oil from EOR. © 2020 The Authors. Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Risk assessment on the CCUS project using risk breakdown structure methodology: A case study on Jilin oilfield CO2‐EOR Hei‐79 block

“…The hazard types (1) to ( 4) are assigned scores of 10, 5, 2, and 1, respectively. In addition, the two types of storage are assigned additional scores of 5 each since oil displacement involves flammable and explosive hazardous substances and since the use of these technologies for ocean storage poses a challenge 19,20 (Table 2). The division of scores shown in Table 1 is based on a small-scale storage capacity of 100,000 t a −1 .…”

Evaluation of the Microbial Community and Geochemistry in Produced Waters Collected from CO2 EOR in the Niagaran Pinnacle Reef

“…30 The depleted oil fields in the NNPRT are actively undergoing injection with CO 2 for CO 2 EOR and are targeted for permanent CO 2 storage given that the reefs act as a closed reservoir system. 31,32 To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous studies investigating the microbial ecology of Niagaran CO 2 EOR wells.…”

“…These structures allowed for trapping of oil and gas that collected when oceans receded and coral reefs died, which now serves as a significant hydrocarbon source . The depleted oil fields in the NNPRT are actively undergoing injection with CO 2 for CO 2 EOR and are targeted for permanent CO 2 storage given that the reefs act as a closed reservoir system. , To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous studies investigating the microbial ecology of Niagaran CO 2 EOR wells.…”

The effects of porosity and permeability changes on simulated supercritical CO2 migration front in tight glutenite under different effective confining pressures from 1.5 MPa to 21.5 MPa

“…Suitable target reservoirs include deep saline aquifers, uneconomic coal seams, deep ocean and oil reservoirs 4,5 . Among these approaches, CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 ‐EOR) technology has high economic (in particular, for tight reservoirs with very low primary recoveries) and potential environmental benefits (obviously, any stored CO 2 would be offset by increased production of hydrocarbons from the subsurface) 6,7 . Among various EOR techniques, water‐alternating‐gas (WAG) injection is a mature secondary EOR technology and is widely used to enhance production processes 8 .…”

“…4,5 Among these approaches, CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR) technology has high economic (in particular, for tight reservoirs with very low primary recoveries) and potential environmental benefits (obviously, any stored CO 2 would be offset by increased production of hydrocarbons from the subsurface). 6,7 Among various EOR techniques, water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection is a mature secondary EOR technology and is widely used to enhance production processes. 8 CO 2 is injected into the reservoir after it has been compressed/heated to a supercritical phase above ground.…”